A MEMBER of a rioting mob which attacked cars and houses and threatened a fire crew has had his sentence increased.

Nijah Miller was found guilty last week of violent disorder in Lozells, Birmingham, in October 2005 and jailed for three years.

He was sentenced in his absence after failing to turn up at court after the trial had started.

Miller was arrested last weekend and, when he was brought before the court, Judge Elizabeth Fisher added a further three months to his sentence for having absconded.

John Butterfield, prosecuting, said Miller had run away from the police during the bank holiday weekend after they had gone to his home to speak to him about an unrelated matter.

He was re-arrested by chance after police went to an address in London.

Andrew Davidson, defending, said Miller had been staying with relations when he was caught.

Birmingham Crown Court was told that in October 2005 serious, racially-motivated violence erupted in Lozells and Newtown following a false rumour that a 14-year-old black girl had been gang-raped by up to 25 Asian men in a shop in Perry Barr.

Miller, 22, of Salstar Close, Aston, and three others were given prison sentences last week after the court heard they had been part of an armed mob which had been involved in a number of serious incidents, damaging cars and hurling missiles at a shop on the evening of October 23.

They had also confronted a fire crew, one of the mob producing a gun.

The incident only came to an end when one of the group accidentally shot and killed another member of the gang as they were running away from police.